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from the would-you-play-differently-online? dept.
Wizards of the Coast, the parent company of Dungeons & Dragons, reported that 8.6 million people played the game in 2017, its biggest year of sales in two decades. That mark was eclipsed in 2018, when D&D sales reportedly grew 30 percent. All of those D&D consumers are snapping up the Fifth Edition, a new rule set released in 2014 that emphasizes a flexible approach to combat and decision-making. New players don’t need to learn as many arcane rules to get started, and sales of D&D starter kits skyrocketed.
Adding to the newfound popularity are thousands of D&D games broadcast on YouTube and the live-stream service Twitch. “Critical Role,” a popular livestream and podcast, features actors playing the game.
[...]What makes D & D[sic] different is that we can never forget about the human beings behind the avatars. When a member of my group makes a bad choice, I can’t look into his face and shout insults the way I would if we were playing online. He’s a person, and my friend, even if he also inexplicably decided to open an obviously booby-trapped trunk, get a faceful of poison and use up my last remaining healing spell.
My 50th-level Magic-User Ferrick the Magnificent scoffs at these neophytes...
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday April 09 2019, @04:18PM
Why not T&T [flyingbuffalo.com], which I assume is still a single-book resource to play and prided itself on not requiring anything else for a session but the base rules? Why not Talislanta [talislanta.com] which is completely free now? (Haven't played that one since 2E).
I'd guess that it's because:
1) WOTC flogs D&D stuff through Barnes & Noble. I'd complain if I didn't buy my first AD&D set at B. Dalton (or was it Waldenbooks?) At any rate, the hipster kids can come across it there.
2) Thank God the 'Danes and the Norms think D&D is the beginning and end of RPG's.
I gave most of my gaming stuff away to my nephew who's a gamer, but kept my dice (of course) and also my original Cyberpunk set and my Basic, Expert, and Advanced rules, even though I don't expect to play again necessarily. But I download stuff occasionally. This post made me think about Talislanta again, so now I'm off to download what I didn't have before.
This sig for rent.